


Dernier Recours

by KarmaHope



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Identity Reveal, ladrien, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 04:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6223723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarmaHope/pseuds/KarmaHope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien can’t find his ring. As a last resort, he’s forced to go to Ladybug for help, revealing his identity in the process. Post-Jackady/Simon Says</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dernier Recours

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by http://ladyofacat.tumblr.com/post/140727632153/what-if-adriens-father-stole-his-ring-during-the

He never expected it would all come crashing down around him as quickly and as efficiently as it does.

_“Do you really want to go to the pool with your ring on, Adrien? It’s a very nice piece of jewelry, I’d hate for it to get lost or ruined.”_

The words echo in Adrien’s mind as he paces his room, his hands buried in hair that has long since lost its perfectly-coiffed look. He tugs at it as he tries his best not to look at his hand. At his fingers. At one finger in particular. At one _bare_ finger in particular.

He turns to ask Plagg what he should do, only to be met with the harsh reminder that _Plagg isn’t there_. He isn’t there because the ring isn’t on his finger and Adrien doesn’t know how he managed to fuck this up so monumentally. Well, he knows how he did it; he just doesn’t know _why_.

Because he trusted his father?

Because he _didn’t_ want to lose the ring?

It’s almost funny how these things work out, except it’s not funny at _all_ because Chat Noir is missing – has been missing for three days now – and there’s been at least one akuma attack in that time. Unable to transform without his ring, he was forced to leave Ladybug to her own defenses for the first time since they began this whole superhero thing together.

Unable to transform, he’s been forced to watch the news coverage of the akuma attacks like any other ordinary civilian.

Without his ring, he’s been reduced to trying to avoid biting his nails to the quick as he fears for his partner’s life.

He can’t take it anymore.

It’s not an impulsive decision, he tells himself as he logs onto the Ladyblog. He’s thought his options through during the three days he’s been confined to civilian arrest. He’s thought them through, and then through again. Every time, he wonders if there’s another way; but every time, he knows in his heart that there’s really not.

As he opens the window to compose a message to the blog’s admin, who is none other than his classmate Alya Cèsaire, he hopes beyond hope that Ladybug won’t kill him for this as he resigns himself to that very fact. He hopes she’ll see that he had no other option.

He takes a deep breath and begins.

SUBJECT: _CHAT NOIR NEEDS YOUR HELP (I swear to god this isn’t spam!!)_

_Alya –_

_Please believe me when I say I’m actually Chat Noir, and I need your help. I can’t transform right now. Ladybug fought the last fight on her own because I couldn’t transform. I can’t tell you why, but I really need your help._

_Can you please please please make a post on your blog asking Ladybug to meet me the day after tomorrow at 16:00 on the street where we first met? She’ll know where it is. I don’t know if she actually reads your blog, but if you get Paris talking, hopefully she’ll hear about it._

_Please help me, Alya, you’re my only hope. I have no way of convincing you that I’m actually Chat Noir, but please take my word for it. At this point, I’m desperate. I don’t want to leave my lady alone for any longer than I already have._

_Thank you,_

_Chat Noir_

He adds a cat emoji at the end for good measure, just because he can, and then it’s done. At this point, all he can do is wait.

He hates waiting.

* * *

The next day passes all too quickly. He hopes to find the ring, but has no such luck. By the time the day of the meeting rolls around, he’s all nerves. He can’t focus in class. Nino asks what’s wrong, and he’s not entirely sure of the answer he gives even as he gives it.

There’s only one thing that can capture his attention now.

“Do you think Ladybug will actually go and meet him?”

Adrien fights the urge to turn around at the sound of Alya’s question to Marinette. He doesn’t want to seem too eager, but only just manages to slow his turn into something more casual as Marinette responds.

“Was the message even from him?” she asks skeptically. “You said he said he can’t transform – he could be anyone trying to get close to Ladybug!”

Adrien curses silently. She has a point, and a really good point at that. Is Ladybug thinking the same thing? He hopes not. He really hopes not.

“He said to meet ‘at the street where they first met,’ though,” someone says. He’s shocked to realize the words are his own, but he continues when both Marinette and Alya turn to look at him. “Wouldn’t Chat Noir be the only other person to know where that is?”

Marinette’s eyes are wide and nervous. He mentally kicks himself – why does he scare her so? “I – uhm,” she stammers, smiling weakly. “Y-yeah, I guess that’s true.”

Class is dismissed not two minutes later, and his anxiety multiplies tenfold. He still has some time before the meeting he set up, and he doesn’t know how he’ll bear it. He stuffs his schoolbag hastily and runs, unable to handle being in the room with so many others any longer. He faintly hears Nino calling after him and Marinette inquiring about his wellbeing, but he’s gone.

As Adrien walks toward that street where she came crashing into his life, he tries to summon his feline confidence. He fails miserably. What if Marinette was right, and Ladybug doesn’t show? What if she’s mad at him for revealing his identity? What if she doesn’t believe him? Or worse, what if she believes him, but rejects him for being Adrien Agreste?

His doubts reduce him to a quivering ball of nerves.

Unfortunately, he reaches the proposed meeting spot far too early, giving him even more time to work himself up. He desperately hopes that no one realizes the boy sitting on the curb with his head between his knees is none other than Adrien Agreste.

In a single moment of clarity, he desperately, _desperately_ hopes his father doesn’t find out about this meeting.

With that thought in mind, he forces himself to stand and retreat into a nearby alleyway. He stands close enough to watch for his partner in stopping crime, but far enough that he may not be noticed unless people are actually looking.

Several minutes pass. Ladybug drops onto the opposite roof, and his heart drops down into his stomach.

“Chat?” she calls tentatively, surveying the street before her. “Kitty, are you there?”

Adrien’s heart clenches at the sound of her voice, so obviously worried about her partner. For a brief moment, he debates hiding back in the alleyway until she gives up and goes home. After all, he could handle this on his own, couldn’t he? There’s no need to break her one cardinal rule.

But she _knows_ he couldn’t transform. She had arrived at this very street knowing she would learn his true identity. And Chat wouldn’t – _he_ wouldn’t – run away out of sheer cowardice.

She jumps down into the street itself, and he takes that to be his cue.

“I’m here, my lady!” he calls, trying to affect Chat Noir’s suave tones while fighting the blush that burns his cheeks as he does so. “In the alleyway!”

Ladybug hears him, and turns toward his voice. As she cautiously makes her way toward him, he realizes that he could have worn a ski mask or a balaclava or a hat and sunglasses to hide his identity. It’s too late now. It’s way too late now.

“Well, I’ve always said you were an alley –” she rounds the corner, and suddenly she’s right there, pausing mid-sentence as she sees who’s standing there. “A- _Adrien?_ ”

Adrien laughs uneasily as he realizes he has no idea where to go from there.

“What … what are you doing here?” She asks the question slowly, deliberately. He can see that she’s thinking the evidence through to its not-so-logical conclusion, and her sky-blue eyes begin to widen in disbelief.

“Listen,” he says quickly, jumping in before she can say anything, or even freak out. “I’m Chat Noir. Or at least, I was. I’ve lost my ring – I went to the pool and left it in my room because I didn’t want to lose it. I think my father may have taken it, but I’m not sure. I just – I’m sorry for revealing myself like this, this isn’t how I thought this would go. Like, at all.” He laughs again, that same nervous laughter as before. “But I – I didn’t want you thinking I’d abandoned you, or … anything like that. You know?”

He trails off awkwardly, forcing himself to glance up at Ladybug’s face. She stares at him, shell-shocked, with red dusting her cheeks as she tries to reconcile his face with the face of the partner she knows so well.

“ _Mon dieu,_ ” she whispers after several moments. “Adrien … you … you’re … _you’re_ Chat Noir? You’re the _same person?_ ” She pulls at her pigtails, and Adrien has never seen his partner so flustered. “ _Mon dieu_ ,” she whispers again.

“I, uhm … surprise?”

“Uh, yeah. Just, uh – just give me a second. Sorry, Adr- uh, Chat. Adrien?” She stumbles over his name before giving up. “I, uhm, _really_ wasn’t expecting this. I mean, I was? Kind of? I just wasn’t – I wasn’t expecting _you_.”

“Please, Ladybug,” Adrien says; her words pain him. “I don’t want this to be weird between us. I just – I didn’t know what else to do.”

“N-no,” Ladybug insists, “no, it’s fine. I believe you. We’ll get your ring back, I promise. I … I think I have a plan already. You’ll need to not transform for a few more days after we get the ring back, just to be safe.”

She’s not looking at him as she speaks, and he knows that despite all she says that everything is okay, he knows it really isn’t. Will she be able to look at Chat Noir once they get the ring back and pretend like nothing has changed? Or will she always be this unsure around him?

So lost is he in his thoughts that he misses what she says next. “Sorry, what?”

Ladybug sighs. “Adrien,” she says, “you know that I can’t, uhm, tell you –”

“I know,” he says, cutting her off. And he does know. He never expected her to reveal herself to him in return. Her secrecy keeps her safe, and her safety always comes first – even when it comes at a cost to his own.

She grins for the first time since she stepped into the alley, and he feels his anxiety slowly melt away. Suddenly she’s right in front of him, her hand resting on his shoulder as it has done so many times before. “This doesn’t change anything, uh, Kitty,” she says, blushing at the use of his nickname. “We’re still partners after all, right?”

He smiles back at her, still not quite able to summon the grin that comes so naturally when he’s transformed. He does, however, blush terribly – something that never happens while he’s transformed. Thankfully, Ladybug doesn’t seem to notice.

“Right.”


End file.
